Ink jet recording apparatus and ink jet recording method

1. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising:

an image forming unit that forms a first image containing a first liquid and a coloring material on a transfer body; and

a liquid absorbing device including a liquid absorbing member having a porous body coming in contact with the first image to at least partially absorb the first liquid from the first image, and a cleaning member coming in contact with the porous body to clean the porous body

wherein surface free energy Y 1 of the transfer body, surface free energy Y 2 of the porous body, surface free energy Y 3 of the cleaning member, and a dispersion force component Y d of surface free energy of the first image satisfy the following Equation (1):

| Y d −Y 3 |<|Y d ,−Y 1 |<|Y d ,−Y 2 |  (1).

2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein Y 1 , Y 2 , Y 3 , and Y d satisfy the following Equation (2):

Y 2 <Y 3 <Y d <Y 1   (2).

3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a Shore hardness of a material constituting the transfer body is higher than a Shore hardness of a material constituting the cleaning member.

4. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a surface roughness Ra of the cleaning member is larger than a surface roughness Ra of the transfer body.

5. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the liquid absorbing device further includes:

a liquid applying member that applies a third liquid onto the porous body; and

a liquid removing member that partially removes the third liquid from the porous body applied with the third liquid.

6. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the image forming unit includes:

a device that applies a first liquid composition containing the first liquid or a second liquid and an ink viscosity-increasing component onto the transfer body; and

a device that applies a second liquid composition containing the first liquid or second liquid and the coloring material onto the transfer body, and

the first image is a mixture of the first and second liquid compositions and is more viscously thickened than the first and second liquid compositions.

7. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a transfer device that transfers a second image obtained by at least partially absorbing the first liquid from the first image to a recording medium.

8. An ink jet recording method comprising the steps of:

forming a first image containing a first liquid and a coloring material on a transfer body;

contacting a porous body with the first image to at least partially absorb the first liquid from the first image; and

contacting a cleaning member with the porous body to clean the porous body,

wherein surface free energy Y 1 of the transfer body, surface free energy Y 2 of the porous body, surface free energy Y 3 of the cleaning member, and a dispersion force component Y d of surface free energy of the first image satisfy the following Equation (1):

| Y d −Y 3 |<|Y d −Y 1 |<|Y d −Y 2 |  (1).

9. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising:

an image forming unit that applies ink containing a first liquid and a coloring material to form a first image on a transfer body; and

a liquid absorbing device including a liquid absorbing member having a porous body coming in contact with the first image to concentrate the ink constituting the first image, and a cleaning member coming in contact with the porous body to clean the porous body, wherein surface free energy Y 1 of the transfer body, surface free energy Y 2 of the porous body, surface free energy Y 3 of the cleaning member, and a dispersion force component Y d of surface free energy of the first image satisfy the following Equation (1):

| Y d −Y 3 |<|Y d −Y 1 |<|Y d −Y 2 |  (1)